Crolla scrapes through on USA debut

British lightweight champion Anthony Crolla made a successful US debut but had to be content with a split decision victory over Juan Montiel, deep on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather’s comeback against Victor Ortitz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas tonight.

Manchester’s Crolla was ruled a comfortable winner on two judges’ scorecards after the eight round contest, 78-74 and 77-75, however the other judge surprisingly favoured Montiel by 77-75. BoxRec News’ card read 78-75 in Crolla’s favour who has now won his last nine fights since losing a British super-featherweight title eliminator to Gary Sykes to advance to 22-2 (9).

Crolla, 9st9, produced a workmanlike performance when faced with a typically marauding Mexican in Montiel, 9st8, who is better than his 5-4-3 record suggests (the Mexican had only lost one in six going into this). Montiel tried to take Crolla out of his stride early on but his repetitive hooks to the head were easily blocked by the Manchester man who maintained a watertight defence throughout. Crolla, who is just as comfortable boxing off the front foot as he is the back, was in the mood for a scrap and he connected with some impressive right hand counters in round two as he pursued a toe-to-toe battle.

Crolla’s edge in quality was again apparent in the third as he started to let his punches flow with a jab, right hand and left hook combination which forced Montiel to briefly drop his hands in acknowledgement of the British champion’s quality. Anthony continued to have the edge in the exchanges and he opened up a cut to Montiel’s right eye in round five.

Crolla was in command however his manager Michael Marsden, assuming corner responsibilities in the absence of regular trainer Joe Gallagher, who elected to remain in Liverpool for Stephen Smith’s British and Commonwealth featherweight showdown against Lee Selby, urged his man to box instead of trading. Crolla appeared to heed Marsden’s words in-between sessions only to revert to type as soon as the bell sounded.

Crolla, with some justification, would argue that he needn’t have tinkered with a winning formula, however Marsden's advice was partially vindicated as Anthony tired in the final two rounds which enabled Montiel to enjoy some fleeting success. Overall, though, Crolla can feel pleased with his performance and could well find himself being invited back to US shores in the future, having been previously mooted as an opponent for veteran superstar, Erik Morales.